Concerned about not seeing structure in M.P/M.C questions?

Jefferson

Hi all,

So, I am getting 80% of my answers correct on my first pass and the remainder correct during Blind review, but I seem to be doing so via intuition and not readily seeing the conclusion and premises. After watching the explanation videos I ask myself 'How didn't you see the structure?'. I think I'm getting too hung up looking for indicators that don't exist and then after being flustered I mix up sub conclusions for conclusions. Somehow my intuition saves me but I don't like that I don't see the structure. Any thoughts on how to improve? Thanks in advance.

Jordan Johnson

Underline both conclusions you recognize (one has to be a subconclusion, the other has to be the overall conclusion). Determine which one is supporting the other. An overall conclusion won't offer support/evidence for a subconclusion, but a subconclusion will offer support/evidence that leads to the overall conclusion.

Given one conclusion is "A" and the other is "B", try: "A, therefore B" and then "B, therefore A". That usually does the trick for me.

Hope that helps!

LawyeringForLife-1

Without going over your whole process step-by-step there could be a couple of different things that can help you.
1. I agree with Jordan on the sub-con vs con advice. Which one supports the other is a good way to look at it.
If there are no indicator words, you should try to ID which claim (conclusion) is the highest ranked in the text. That helps a lot too.
2. You said you don't see the structure - if you mean the whole structure of the stimulus, then that would mean that you can't clearly delineate the role of each statement.
I would take a whole LR section, print it out, and do untimed practice - grab the pencil and mark every fact (evidence/premise) and every claim (conclusion). Also label background/context statements. Slow way, way down.
That will significantly increase your ability to ID the conclusion.

Jefferson

That is great information and advice on both of your parts, and I will take it. Thank you both!